Vincenzo Nibali is rightfully a big-name grand tour rider with class to boot. The Italian also has what I don’t have for grand tour credentials - wins in the Vuelta a Espana (2010) and Giro d’Italia (2013) and third place in the Tour de France (2012).

My best is a seventh place in the Giro, in 2010, when I was a first year professional.

But what some may not know, and that I raised at Tuesday’s press conference in Besancon on the eve of the Tour resuming with stage 11 on Wednesday – 187.5km from Besancon to Oyonnax - is that Nibali and I go back to 2009.

Advertisement

At the time I lived in Italy, in the town of Mastromarco in Tuscany and rode on the Monsummanese Grassi Mapei amateur team.

It was an eye-opening year that was highlighted with a 10th overall in the Tour of Langkawi and ninth in the Baby Giro.

Nibali was a former rider on the team and, while he and I are the same age, he had left to join the professional Liquigas team. But he was still in the area and we often saw each other training. I also knew his younger brother Antonio who also raced there.

I could see then that Nibali was a tough rider, highly competitive, and that he likes to attack, perhaps believing the old saying that the best form of defence is attack.

But I also have experience racing against Nibali, as we were both in the 2010 Giro d’Italia. While I placed seventh, Nibali was third in a race won by fellow Italian Ivan Basso.

So I hope the experience of competing against him on general classification then – even if I was then a first year professional – will pay back somehow in the next days.

I’m sure he will have made best of Tuesday’s rest day though, as the whole peloton will have, with it coming after 10 tough days spent mostly racing in constant rain.

But geez … the rest day goes fast though, especially in my new role as team leader.

You don’t get enough time to do things, or what you think you would like to do as the day draws near. Of course you sleep in a bit, but from then on the hours fly by.

There was a morning anti-doping control at the hotel, a mid-morning press conference, then a team ride in which I rode on my time trial bike with an eye on the 20th stage, a 54km time trial that could determine the overall standings - or winner.

After that, there is time for lunch and a short sleep, then the usual procedure of massage and dinner, thrown in with a few meetings with various staff about the days to come.

One unscheduled issue that I had to deal with though was retrieving my laptop from the team hotel we stayed at after stage nine to Mulhouse in the town of Sausheim.

That left me in a bit of a spin as I had a new video collection to watch after finishing Game of Thrones - the whole series of Band of Brothers. And I admit, this is not my first offence. Last year I left my toilet bag in a hotel room. Yes, that came back.

While a rest day is nice, I’m looking forward to getting back into the routine of the race. I’ve said how I’m looking forward to the Alps and Pyrenees that will suit me better than the Vosges, but it will be nice also to see all the Australians on the road.

I’ve noticed they are cheering me more than they have in the past, perhaps the problem before was because I had been ‘adopted’ by a British team to help British riders win. I can understand that better now, but it’s nice to hear cheers for you.

The only Aussie fans who may not cheer for me so much are Collingwood AFL fans. But I’m a Carlton supporter, so I can totally see where that is coming from and they would understand what I mean there … But that's footy, and another story!